Choosing Swimming over Suffering
Posted on March 05, 2024 by Amy Luckey, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.
We can resist and rage, or we can choose presence.
This is not about cold water swimming.
This is not about me.
This is about a choice that we each make every day.
Years ago a colleague led a dozen of us to the shore of the Bay on a sunless San Francisco afternoon. The air was chilly and the water would feel colder, wetsuit-worthy.
Shivering in our swimsuits and Esther Williams-esque swim caps — you know the ones: thick, rubbery, and adorned with plastic flowers — we huddled inches away from the ripples lapping the beach.
Emma choreographed our entry. First, up to our knees. Pause. Breathe. Release. Feel the water. Experience the cold. Stay. Stay in the water. Stay in our bodies. Stay in the experience. Breathe and release.
Then up to our waists. Pause. Breathe. Release. Feel the water. Experience the cold. Stay. Stay in the water. Stay in our bodies. Stay in the experience. Breathe and release.
And so on until our bodies were submerged and each of us, amazed by our own capacity, swam into the Bay.
That evening, dried off, dressed, and still euphoric, we celebrated our triumph. The simple pasta meal we shared is among the best that I can remember.
The water temperature did not change; how we chose to experience it did.
We hadn’t pushed through the pain.
We hadn’t withstood the cold.
Grit did not get us through.
Presence, acceptance of what is, and the release of our own resistance did.
~
Standstill traffic when we’re already late to that meeting.
The crashed wifi network on the morning of the big presentation.
That colleague’s grating habits.
We can rage against the traffic and the wifi. We can fixate on our colleague’s irritating “faults.” We can stomp through our day, every muscle in our body taut with annoyance and anger.
And, we’ll still be there. Still stuck in traffic. Still waiting for the wifi. Still sitting next to that colleague.
The sea water is no less cold.
~
Pause. Breathe. Release. Experience the discomfort. Stay. Stay in our bodies. Stay in the experience. Breathe and release.
